October 30, 2020
An Iranian man has been denied refugee status in South Korea, although his son, who grew up in the country and speaks fluent Korean was granted refugee status last year.
The decision does not mean that the 53-year-old father will be deported. Korea granted him an extension of his “humanitarian stay,” meaning he can stay in the country for now.
The son, aged 16, has the Korean name of Kim Min-hyuk.
The father and son landed in South Korea in 2010 and both converted to Catholicism five years later.
In 2016, they applied for refugee status, which would make them eligible for some social benefits, including housing and medical subsidies.
The Korea Immigration Service, however, rejected their appeals, citing doubts about whether their Catholic faith was real.
The son finally received the status after a campaign by his teacher and schoolmates, as well as local Catholic circles.
But the immigration agency has now again turned down the father’s application, while letting him stay in South Korea for another year. Under the humanitarian stay permit, he can work.
The agency said his explanation for needing refugee status is not deemed to rise to the standard of “fear of persecution,” as stipulated in the UN refugee convention.
The father immediately protested the decision, telling reporters via his lawyer that he would file an administrative petition or even a lawsuit.
His son urged the government to grant his father refugee status so that they could live together in South Korea with stability. “I hope that my father, my sole family member, could have a better life by obtaining refugee status,” Kim told reporters.
Their story has drawn keen public attention since the arrival of hundreds of Yemeni refugees on the southern island of Jeju last year. That has triggered a heated debate about refugee issues in a traditionally homogeneous country.
Some raised concerns about the possibility of a massive influx of bogus applicants seeking economic advantages and a potential increase in the number of crimes and other social problems. Others stressed that South Korea should play a more responsible role in such a global issue.
More than 16,000 foreign asylum seekers arriving in South Korea applied for refugee status in Korea last year, up 62.7 percent from a year earlier, according to government data.
Of them, 144 foreign nationals obtained refugee status and 514 were granted humanitarian stay permits. Among the Yemenis, only two received refugee status while 412 obtained temporary stay permits.
From 1995 until the Trump Administration, the United States granted asylum to more than 20,000 people in every year but one.